How to Handle a Low Balance or Expiring Frequent Travel Miles
Miles are a great way to book free travel but what do you do when you don’t have enough for even the shortest flights.
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By Shainur Ahsan
Introduction to Frequent Travel Miles
Miles are almost always best used for travel if possible and this is where you’ll get the best value for your miles. However, I’ll cover what to do with your miles if you have a balance too low to redeem for air travel and have miles expiring soon. I’ll also cover some ways on how to keep your miles active for longer, but you’ll have to determine for yourself if any of the options makes sense.
In the past, I often chose the lowest fare when deciding on which airline to fly. This has resulted in my miles being distributed among various loyalty programs and has preventing me from building a large balance in most programs. I don’t fly regularly enough for the miles to add up to book a reward flight, and I find the miles often expiring before I have a chance to use them. I recently became more conscious of the power of loyalty programs as I never really used miles to book rewards in the past. For this post, I’ll be referring to American Airlines AAdvantage and the Emirates Skywards programs, but there will be many similarities for other programs.
Keeping Miles Active
First, let’s cover how to keep your miles active so you can continue building your balance.
Depending on the loyalty program, there may be a number of ways to keep miles active. Many programs require you to have some activity in your account within a specified period. The easiest thing to do would be to book another flight with that airline if possible. However, you may not be in a position to do so. There are still a number of other options to create activity in your account. Let’s look at some of the options for the AAdvantage program.
Do One of the Following to Generate Account Activity
- Make a Purchase using a Co-branded Credit Card (Citi AAdvantage Card)
- Enroll in a Dining Rewards Program (AAdvantage Dining)
- Use the Airline's Shopping Portal
- Redeem or Earn From a Delta (or Partner Airline) Flight
- Earn Points from a Hotel Partner or Transfer Existing Hotel Points
- Donate Miles to Charity
Options in parenthesis and links are for the AAdvantage program. There may be additional options for keeping miles active.
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Using Miles With a Low Balance
If you absolutely must spend the miles rather than keeping them active, your program may offer a few paths for redemption. The AAdvantage program, for example, offers options to redeem miles for magazines, newspapers, and gift cards. I found that the portal for the gift cards to give me a warning message that I needed a minimum balance of 25,000 miles (although the lowest gift cards started around 2,500 miles). However, I found the magazine redemption to not be too bad as long as there’s a magazine you want on the list. Typically, you can get a year’s subscription for 500-1,200 miles. Keep in mind that you may also be able to redeem miles for hotel stays and rental cars for more local trips.
Using Miles from a Foreign Airline
Having a ten thousand mile balance with a foreign airline may seem high, but it may not be enough points to book an international flight on that same airline. Building a large enough balance for such a flight redemption may require multiple international trips in a relatively short period. Luckily, many international airlines have US domestic partner airlines which have rewards flights available for a much lower mileage cost. Additionally, you can look into redeeming points for hotels or cars if those options are available.
Personally, I make an international trip every one to two years using either Emirates or Qatar Airways. The past two years I was able to build up a balance of 20,000 miles through Emirate’s Skywards program. The majority of Emirates’ routes departing from the US are for the Middle East which are both long and require way more miles than I have to book. However, Emirates does partner with JetBlue which is ultimately how I chose to redeem my miles.
Redeeming Skywards miles on JetBlue often has a higher mileage cost than if you had TrueBlue (JetBlue’s loyalty program) miles to spend. For example, a one way trip from Washington D.C. to Orlando cost me 11,500 Skywards miles whereas it would cost 10,700 miles through JetBlue’s own portal. You also need to factor in any additional charges when redeeming with miles. The additional charge for my Skywards redemption was $10 versus $3.75 if I was using TrueBlue miles. I found the trade-off to be acceptable as I highly doubt I’ll be able to accrue enough mileage for a reward international flight within the three-year lifespan of my Skywards miles.
Conclusion
Having a low balance or miles expiring soon does not mean that you have to let your miles sit or go to waste. Take advantage of airline’s partnerships to find additional ways to earn and redeem miles other than booking air travel out of pocket. Take a look at what I believe to be the top ways to keep miles active and to redeem miles.
Keeping Miles Active
- Use the Airline’s Shopping Portal
- Enroll in the Airlines Dining Program
Using Miles Before Expiration
- Redeem Miles with a Partner Airline where Flights may be a Lower Mileage Cost
- Redeem Miles for a Hotel for Smaller, Local Trips
